Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Teoh's inquest postponed to Aug 5

SHAH ALAM: The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the Magistrate's Court here has been postponed to Aug 5 at the request of lawyers representing the family, the Selangor Government and the Bar Council.

Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas granted the request after hearing arguments from Gobind Singh Deo who had said that the lawyers needed time to study all relevant documents, as well to grant the Malaysian Government time to consider the family’s request that a Royal Commission of Inquiry be established to investigate the death.

Azmil Muntapha had earlier granted lawyers appointed by the family and the Selangor Government “interested party” status, allowing them to question witnesses during the inquest, which was expected to last 15 days.

The Bar Council had also led a team to hold a watching brief and who requested “interested party” status.

Tan Hock Chuan, acting for the Attorney-General, said he had no objections regarding the first two groups but said the lawyers holding a watching brief for the Bar Council did not fall within the applicable provisions to be granted such a status.

The Bar Council lawyers, led by Hisyam Teh, told coroner Azmil Muntapha that there may be questions that they would want to ask the witnesses and assured him that all these questions would be relevant.

Coroner Azmil Muntapha, who is also the Shah Alam High Court deputy registrar, finally allowed them to participate, and to question witnesses. Continue here ...

Have a Heart: Save IJN

Israel’s assault on Gaza, by air, sea and now land, has killed (at the time of this writing) more than 600 Palestinians, with more than 2,700 injured. Ten Israelis have been killed, three of them Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire. Beyond the deaths and injuries, the people of Gaza are suffering a dire humanitarian crisis that is dismissed by the Israeli government. There is, however, Israeli opposition to the military assault. Read here...

Human Rights

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Child Safety

Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges.
For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows.
It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially dangerous situation...
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Why Hamas is NOT the issue

Mohammed, age six, marched with determination to his bedroom, put on a record of the Fatah marching song, picked up a wooden toy rifle and marched out to the balcony. He pointed the rifle to the sky where minutes ago, Israeli planes flew over dropping bombs on Palestinian refugee sites. Mohammed told me he wanted to be a pilot so he could fight Israeli warplanes. “But Mohammed, the Palestinians do not have planes.” “I don’t care, I will fight them whatever way I can.”Was a resistance fighter born this minute or was he a “future terrorist”? (Beirut 1973)

How does one explain the horrific fate that has befallen caged Gaza – a land saturated with rubble and body parts – carpet-bombed by air, invaded by ground, attacked by sea? Put to the test of history, Israeli “explanations” fail the credibility test. continue here---------------------------------------------Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignoredWe've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force. ..Continue here

War on Gaza

Israel's failure to learnBy Nir Rosen (Aljazeera)

When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.To continue read here ...